Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Casey for that question. I thank him and the members for Deakin, Aston and La Trobe for the campaign they are running on the eastern side of the East West Link and I thank the member for Corangamite for the efforts that she continues to put in on the western side—which, in fairness to the Leader of the Opposition, was his preferred option when he put in not one but two submissions to the Sir Rod Eddington inquiry at the end of the last decade. Sir Rod Eddington said that doing nothing was not an option. Melbourne needs another east-west crossing. That was made clear in Sir Rod Eddington's report, which the Leader of the Opposition supported twice—once as a union boss and once as the member for a western seat in Melbourne.

What has become clear since the Victorian election is that Daniel Andrews, the Leader of the Victorian Labor government, will tear up the East West contract. In an effort to hold the Greens at bay in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, he has said he would tear it up. It was an attempt he was half successful at; he lost to the Greens two of the seats they were trying to keep and he held onto the other two.

Ms Butler interjecting—

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